Trying to answer the question, "Where is my jetpack?"

Personal Helicopter Market Round-up: The Mosquito

After reading an interesting series in Vertiflight Magazine (the subscription magazine for those of us in the American Helicopter Society), I thought it would be worthwhile to pull together a summary of the personal helicopter market. In this series of poss, I will provide some basic information about the ultralight and microlight VTOL vehicles that make up the personal helicopter market. This series of posts will include the following models/companies: the Helicycle, the Dragonfly, the Mosquito, Millennium Helicopters, and Safari Helicopters.

The Mosquito

First of all, it must be noted that there are quite a few models of Mosquito Helicopters to choose from. There is the Mosquito Air, XE, XEL, XE285, XET, and the “in development” Mosquito Swift. A quick model comparison is available on the Mosquito Helicopters website (here), and is so handy that I’ll include it below as well.

Mosquito Helicopter Models Comparison

Perhaps it appeals to the minimalist in me, but the Mosquito Air captured my full attention from the above stellar lineup of Mosquito Helicopters. So, let’s take a closer look at the Mosquito Air.

The Mosquito Air

Mosquito Air Helicopter

Let’s start with price. The Mosquito Air can be yours, ready to fly, for $37,500. Now, that may seem like a lot when you consider you’re essentially buying 500lbs of tubing with a lawn-mower engine attached to it, but it’s really not. This is a ready to fly helicopter, for less than a new BMW. That’s a pretty big deal. And there’s more. If you’re willing to shoulder some of the burden of putting this beast together, the price quickly drops to $30,200 for the Mosquito Air kit – which can be conveniently purchased in 5 sub-kits; allowing the potential assembler-owner to spread the financial hit out over time. What a deal.

By far the cheapest of our Helicopter Market round-up, I would imagine that the Mosquito Air is the cheapest, purest helicopter flying experience on the market. I don’t love 2-stroke engines, and am not sure how much R&D went into their gear reduction and rotor systems, but man does this little machine look fun. This warrants further investigation…

For a video introduction to the Mosquito Helicopter family, check out this YouTube video: